Software
companies continue to cite huge monetary losses that they attribute
to piracy. The question for some who doubt the claimed losses
resulting from piracy is whether the people pirating software would
actually buy the software if they didn’t get it illegally.

A
new report has been issued that claims the global loss to software
piracy is over $50 billion.

The
report claims that in 2009, 43% of the software on computers around
the world was pirated, up from 41% the previous year. Of the $50.4
billion in losses attributed to piracy globally, $16.5
million of that number is said to be in the Asia-Pacific region
alone. The most prolific pirating nations are Brazil, India, and
China. The average piracy rate in the Asia-Pacific area is 59%. Yahoo
News reports
that the 59% number means that 900 million computers in the area run
pirated software.

The
Business Software Alliance's Jeffrey Hardee said, "This study
makes clear that while efforts to bring down piracy levels in the
Asia-Pacific are enjoying some success, dollar losses at over 16.5
billion (dollars) remain the highest in the world. This is
unacceptable and there is still much to be done to engage
governments, businesses and consumers on the risks and impact of
software piracy."

The
world's top pirate country is Georgia in the former Soviet Union
where 95% of all software is claimed to be illegal. Behind Georgia
are Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Moldova, Armenia, and Yemen. The country
with the lowest piracy rate is the U.S. at 20% followed by
Luxembourg, New Zealand, and Australia.

Asia
continues to be the largest source of software piracy according to
the report despite increasing crackdowns by governments in the area.
In January 2009, China sentenced
11 in a case that involved millions of
copies of pirated software.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

You don't test-drive the car for a year, or live in the house for your lifetime before buying it, either.

You have game demos and trials if you want to test out software. Unlike a car, or a house, which is a long term investment, a typical song or game can lose its interest and use after a day or so. There is no incentive to buying a product if you've already seen all it has to offer. Apart from with a product like photoshop... and we all know how rampant piracy is for THAT.

Honestly, comparing a song to a car is just stupid. I'm sure you knew that when you posted the analogy.

It is impossible. To steal something means to deprive the use of it from someone else. When someone makes a copy, they do not deprive the original from its owner.

COPYING =/= STEALING.

Basic economics comes into play. If supply of music goes to infinity, price will go to zero. How do you estimate that $50.1B is lost from music with a price of zero?

Sharing music through peer-to-peer networks and torrents has done more for the music industry than the organisations running it ever have. Whether you call it sharing or pirating, the dissemination of music has raised interest in little-known artists, in live concerts, in merchandise and all sorts of other finite goods.

If you believe that it IS possible to pirate music, then the MPAA/RIAA has succeeded in brainwashing you. This is not the same as copying someone else's works and claiming them as your own. This is not taking credit for the creation or performance of those works.

By your own definition, piracy is theft.By taking intellectual property that does not belong to you without permission or compensation to the legitimate owner you are depriving that owner of the revenue that they are entitled to.

It is a financial crime, not a property crime - this is true. However it is still theft.